Portholes - can't get them to work

[Michael-Cependa]

I can't get any parallax effect with this material. My mesh is named PORTHOLE, the material is named hublots and the MSFS material is set to porthole. I am using the A320 textures as placeholders. The textures display but don't move with the angle of view. I have tried to reproduce everything as in the default airbus. Exporting from Blender 3.1.2.

[Michael-Cependa]

I spend some more time and see there is a parallax effect but the texture only shows when looking forwards and down or vice versa depending on how the textures are set up. I can duplicate the mesh and flip the textures in the second mesh and then set the transparency of the material to 50% and get the desired effect from all viewing angles. But the image flickers a bit. The default aircraft do this with a single mesh somehow. The SDK is totally silent on how this material is supposed to be set up.

[y-khodja]

Hello,

To get this effect to material to work properly you need :

• An emissive map= this is this one that will be projected at the back of the parallax.
• Albd = for colors, the alpha is used to give depth to the surrounding and to the window.
• Comp = nothing special on this map, this is the usual Ao, roughness, metallic
• Norm = if you want to add an extra normal effect

The effects:

• Glass = alpha between 0.8 and 1
• Border = alpha between 0.5 and 0.75
• Invisible = alpha to 0

If there is alpha 0% in the emissive, it will act ‘’transparent’’ like and receive the global lighting on the other side of the airplane. The depth will be done automatically depending on the alpha levels of the albd. Make sure, the normals are horizontal otherwise you may have unexpected results

[Michael-Cependa]

Thanks for the reply.

I am using all Asobo textures for the time being so there is no issue with the alpha values. I'm afraid I don't understand the advice about the normals. The normals are perpendicular to their faces as always. I don't believe it is possible for them to be in any other orientation. The polys themselves are not perfectly vertical due to the curvature of the fuselage, which is also the case for the A320. My windows aren't flat like the A320, but the problem is just the same if I use the mesh imported from the A320.

On the developer forum it was suggested I try Blender 3.3 and the new exporter -- I will let you know if that makes a difference.

[Michael-Cependa]

So, I have issues with Blender 3.3.3 and the new exporter. No mesh with a texture will export. I can't very well have an aircraft without textures. Also, I understand from another thread that export times will be unacceptably long with complex models having animations created in previous versions.

I have installed the new exporter (1.3.0) in Blender 3.1.2 and the porthole issue remains. The image is only visible when viewed looking forward on one side of the aircraft and when looking aft on the other side.

[y-khodja]

Hello,

Can you send us your blend file and package to try to repro ?

[Michael-Cependa]

Still can't get it to work. The windows are visible if looking aft but disappear if the view is angled forward. This can be reversed if the orientation of the window object is flipped around, but always the windows are visible only from one viewing angle. The parallax effect does work correctly within the noted limitation.

I have attached a blend file which is my external model with everything deleted except the windows and a couple of related objects. The windows use the textures taken from the default A320 simply because I need to get the effect to work correctly before making my own textures. The geometry/mesh of the windows is also lifted from the A320.

I have tried using Blender 3.3.10 and the latest exporter. The problem is the same. I don't generally use those versions as they don't work with many of my model's animations which were made with Blender 3.1.2.

I'm not willing to attach the package of a 2/3 finished widebody airliner on a public forum for obvious reasons. Is there some way I can send you the package privately?

porthole example.zip